connective N4 common casualpolite
〜てすみません — I'm sorry for ~ing / thanks for ~ing
〜てすみません
Builds on て形
Meaning
- I'm sorry for ~ing — apologizes for an action that caused trouble; also 'thank you for ~ing' when someone went out of their way for you
〜てすみません attaches すみません to a て-form cause: 遅れてすみません ('sorry for being late'). Because すみません covers both apology and thanks, 〜てすみません can also mean 'thank you for (the trouble of) ~ing' — わざわざ来てくれてすみません ('sorry/thanks for coming all this way'). Negative cause uses なくて: 連絡できなくてすみません ('sorry I couldn't reach you'). More formal: 〜て申し訳ありません.
Key sentence
遅れてすみません。
I'm sorry for being late.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb て-form (or なくて) + すみません | Vて / Vなくて + すみません(でした) | 待たせてすみません / 気づかなくてすみません |
Examples
ご迷惑をかけてすみませんでした。
I'm sorry for causing you trouble.
返事が遅くなってすみません。
Sorry for the late reply.
わざわざ来ていただいてすみません。
Thank you for taking the trouble to come.
Easily confused with
〜てくれてありがとう Both react to a て-form cause, but てすみません leans apologetic (sorry for the trouble), while てくれてありがとう is purely grateful. すみません can blur into thanks; ありがとう never apologizes. て形 Here the て-form supplies the *reason* for the apology ('being late, → sorry'), the cause-and-effect use of て, not a sequence of actions.
Notes
- Past-causing-event often takes でした: 遅れてすみませんでした. The fully formal register is 〜て申し訳ございません.
See 〜てすみません in real sentences
Jengo shows 〜てすみません the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in Jengo